In Teaching History Then and Now, Larry Cuban explores the teaching of history in American high schools during the past half-century. Focusing on two high schools where he once taught--Cleveland's Glenville High School and Washington DC's Cardozo High School--Cuban augments his recollections of and research on the featured schools with a sweeping, nationwide account of the field. The result is exemplary education research, capturing the gritty facts of classroom practice and the larger currents of policy, institutional, and national change. "Teaching History Then and Now takes us back into the classrooms where Cuban himself taught, in the 1950s and 1960s, then brings us into the same schools today. The result is both a memoir and a history, a tale of one educator's life and a meditation on what it means for the rest of us." --Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of history of education, New York University, and author, Too Hot to Handle "Cuban has done it again. He has looked deeply into an important topic in a way that both reads well and gets to some critically significant issues. Everyone from would-be or new teachers to policy makers needs to read this from cover to cover." --Deborah Meier, author, In Schools We Trust "With his deft touch for humanizing education history and drawing the links between policy and practice, Larry Cuban offers an intimate and immensely readable look at how history teaching has changed over the past half-century. Touching on everything from the New Social Studies to the role of technology, his deeply personal narrative explores what 'reform' ultimately means for teachers and students." --Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies, American Enterprise Institute "Larry Cuban draws on his experience as a high school history teacher and educational historian to show how much impact fifty years of school reform have had on American schools. Returning to urban schools where he once taught, he finds that schools remain dynamically conservative organizations, where teachers continue to serve as gatekeepers for policy change and where the grammar of schooling remains strong." --David F. Labaree, professor of education, Stanford University Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

A look at how to teach history in the age of easily accessible—but not always reliable—information. Let’s start with two truths about our era that are so inescapable as to have become clichés: We are surrounded by more readily available information than ever before. And a huge percent of it is inaccurate. Some of the bad info is well-meaning but ignorant. Some of it is deliberately deceptive. All of it is pernicious. With the Internet at our fingertips, what’s a teacher of history to do? In Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone), professor Sam Wineburg has the answers, beginning with this: We can’t stick to the same old read-the-chapter-answer-the-question snoozefest. If we want to educate citizens who can separate fact from fake, we have to equip them with new tools. Historical thinking, Wineburg shows, has nothing to do with the ability to memorize facts. Instead, it’s an orientation to the world that cultivates reasoned skepticism and counters our tendency to confirm our biases. Wineburg lays out a mine-filled landscape, but one that with care, attention, and awareness, we can learn to navigate. The future of the past may rest on our screens. But its fate rests in our hands. Praise for Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone) “If every K-12 teacher of history and social studies read just three chapters of this book—”Crazy for History,” “Changing History . . . One Classroom at a Time,” and “Why Google Can’t Save Us” —the ensuing transformation of our populace would save our democracy.” —James W. Lowen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened “A sobering and urgent report from the leading expert on how American history is taught in the nation’s schools. . . . A bracing, edifying, and vital book.” —Jill Lepore, New Yorker staff writer and author of These Truths “Wineburg is a true innovator who has thought more deeply about the relevance of history to the Internet—and vice versa—than any other scholar I know. Anyone interested in the uses and abuses of history today has a duty to read this book.” —Niall Ferguson, senior fellow, Hoover Institution, and author of The Ascent of Money and Civilization

Learn how to enact justice-oriented pedagogy and foster students’ critical engagement in today’s history classroom. Over the past 2 decades, various scholars have rightfully argued that we need to teach students to “think like a historian” or “think like a democratic citizen.” In this book, the authors advocate for cultivating activist thinking in the history classroom. Teachers can use Teaching History for Justice to show students how activism was used in the past to seek justice, how past social movements connect to the present, and how democratic tools can be used to change society. The first section examines the theoretical and research foundation for “thinking like an activist” and outlines three related pedagogical concepts: social inquiry, critical multiculturalism, and transformative democratic citizenship. The second section presents vignettes based on the authors’ studies of elementary, middle, and high school history teachers who engage in justice-oriented teaching practices. Book Features: Outlines key components of justice-oriented history pedagogy for the history and social studies K–12 classroom.Advocates for students to develop “thinking like an activist” in their approach to studying the past.Contains research-based vignettes of four imagined teachers, providing examples of what teaching history for justice can look like in practice.Includes descriptions of typical units of study in the discipline of history and how they can be reimagined to help students learn about movements and social change.

The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. Teaching History Today is about placing inquiry, primary sources, and literacy foundations of history instruction front and center in the education of preservice history teacher candidates and in-service classroom history teachers. By focusing on these major components of teaching and learning, readers can learn how to organize the massive amount of historical content into effective units. They can see how to integrate the learning of content with the development of skills. And they can gain expertise into how and why to engage students collaboratively in the learning process.

Against a background of controversy surrounding the teaching of history, this reader gathers the current thoughts of the leading practitioners. The development of school history up to the national curriculum and beyond is traced, and the main issues concerning history teachers today are examined. These issues include access to history, the definition of 'British' history in a multicultural society, gender and the place of history with the humanities. Progression and attainment are discussed as is the development of pupil's historical understanding, and practical approaches to teaching history to 11-18 level pupils are explored.

The extraordinary true story of Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to integrate a New Orleans school -- now with simple text for young readers! In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked through an angry crowd and into a school, changing history. This is the true story of an extraordinary little girl who became the first Black person to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. With simple text and historical photographs, this easy reader explores an amazing moment in history and celebrates the courage of a young girl who stayed strong in the face of racism.

Teaching U.S. History is a must read for any aspiring or current teacher who wants to think critically about how to teach U.S. history and make historical discussions come alive in our schools' classrooms.